Shop Talk: Notes from Georgtown U., Limestone College, and the Universities of Virginia and Washington

Reactor building doomed: A striking glass-and-concrete Modernist building that once housed an experimental nuclear reactor at the University of Washington is scheduled to be demolished this summer, according to Preservation, the magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The 1961 building, in which a 10-foot-thick concrete block surrounded a small reactor core, was designed to let students see inside as researchers worked. The architects were Wendell Lovett and Daniel Streissguth—who taught at the university at the time—and Gene Zema. The reactor was shut down for good in 1988, and the building is currently vacant. It has attracted the attention of a graduate student at the university’s College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Abby Martin, who has started a campaign to get it listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but she says she expects it will probably be torn down. The Seattle Times says the university has no plans for the site.

(U. of Virginia image)

From dining hall to public-policy school: A 1908 building that Stanford White designed for the University of Virginia as a dining hall is slated for renovations as it becomes home to the university’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. The building, Garrett Hall, is located near the south end of Jefferson’s Lawn, alongside the building known as Hotel E. University planners told the student newspaper, The Cavalier Daily, that the main and second floors would not be changed much, although the university will restore woodwork, chandeliers, and ceilings. Seminar rooms and other facilities will be added in the basement.

History building will be saved: The Winnie Davis Hall of History at Limestone College will get a $4-million overhaul after sitting unused since the 1980s, according to the Spartanburg Herald-Journal. The red brick Collegiate Gothic building, opened in 1904, was named for the daughter of Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president. The original architects are unknown; the architect for the renovation is Martin Meek of Campbell Meek and Associates, Architects.

Push to preserve observatory: The Astronomical Society at Georgetown University is urging the institution to restore its 1843 Heyden Observatory, which the society believes is the third oldest university observatory in the United States. Although the university shuttered its astronomy department in 1971, the observatory’s telescopes remain in use. The building, which has seen better days, also houses some offices for the biology department, according to The Hoya, Georgetown’s student newspaper.